The Lightning Thieves
by Shizuka4679
Summary: I'm not good with summaries but here it goes. This is my take of what happened in the Lightning thief. I will be adding characters. When Percy arrives at camp he is surrounded by new people and their guardians? And now He is even more confused because he has one too.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone this is the start of my fan fiction, and it is my first. I'm going to start it when Sally and Poseidon first found out about their baby boy. Anyway let the story begin. Safira if you would do the honors…**

**Shizuka4679 does not and will never own PJO!**

Sally

I walked back and forth in the bath room waiting for the pregnancy test to finish. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This- There was a beep and the test was done. I scooped up the test. Oh no… There was a little pink plus sign. I exited the bathroom and went to the living room and stared out the window at Montauk beach. I wonder how Poseidon will take it. I watched the waves waiting for him to come up. I have been here a week and every night I spent with him. I knew about the oath, so we really tried to be careful. But I knew that if the Fates wanted a child there would be one. I rested my hand on my stomach, and waited for them to arrive. His guardian was so beautiful, a white mare with deep-sea green eyes just like his. I hoped our son had his eyes. Yes I am hoping for a son. The knock on the door shock me from my thoughts. I sprinted to the door and quickly opened it. Poseidon looked weary and I knew he already knew.

"Sally I'm so sorry." He started.

I cut him off. "How did you know?"

"Safira, she has gone through child-bearing enough times to know when she's pregnant."

"So this means that you don't want the child?" I murmured.

"Sally believe me when I say this I do want the child. I am just worried about what this will mean for Olympus."

"You do not have faith in your child."

"Sally please…I do have faith in our child, but my children can often be unpredictable. I just want you both to be safe. I have brought our child a hero's fate; I just want to keep you safe. Please Sally, come with me. I can build you a palace…"

"Poseidon I already told you no."

"This means we won't be able to see each other. The gods cannot show favorites among the children."

"I know…"

Poseidon shifted his feet, "I'm leaving Safira with you until the child is born."

"What?!" I yelled. "You can't leave her with me. What if you get into trouble?"

"What if you and the baby get into trouble?"

"I have the sight. I will be fine. Please Poseidon don't put yourself in danger or our child. If the gods realized that Safira was missing. They could come after us. No, keep her with you."

Poseidon stared into my eyes like it was the last time he would see them, and it probably was. I heard a horse whinnying, and Poseidon turned to look at his guardian. She looked at him and pawed the ground.

"What did she say?"

He sighed, "She said 'That you have a strong heart and that you will be fine.'."

I smiled at her, and Safira's green eyes looked amused. She nickered at me, and Poseidon motioned for me to go toward her. I walked out of the house and toward the white mare. Poseidon explained that a guardian is bound to one person because a part of that person's soul resides in the guardian. I still didn't fully understand, but he said that guardians don't like information shared about their abilities unless you're a god or demigod. She pranced the rest of the way up to me and she nuzzled my stomach. I didn't touch her because that was forbidden. I wouldn't like somebody touching my soul, so I don't touch anybody else's. She looked at me like she was saying something, but I couldn't understand her.

"I'm sorry…I don't…"

"She said that our son will be a hero among heroes and that he will have a proud guardian just like her."

I smiled, and Safira nickered like she was laughing. Poseidon walked over and mounted his guardian. She snorted proudly and danced underneath him.

"Sally?"

"Yes?"

"Please… when the child is ready, will you send him to Camp Half-Blood? He will be safe there. That is where he will meet his guardian."

I thought about arguing, but I had said no too much. "Alright, Poseidon. I'll send him when he is ready."

"Thank you." He leaned down and kissed my cheek as he dissolved into a sea breeze, and was swept back into the ocean.

One Year Later

Poseidon

I was watching my son from my palace under the ocean. Perseus was three months old and so was his guardian. Percy was safe in the apartment with his mother and the filly was safe at Camp being watched by Chiron. The filly was named Starlight because she had a star on her forehead that reminded Safira of a star's light. The rest of her was a deep black, and her eyes were brown for the moment. They would change when her apprentice touched her for the first time. I wondered how she would test Percy; all guardians tested there apprentice before they would become one with them, nobody really knew why. Maybe it was to make sure the apprentice was theirs or to test a certain skill. I don't know. Safira was mad about sending Starlight away, but I made my argument; and she yielded after a few days. Though now I was pondering visiting Percy. I wanted to see him, but I knew that if I went Safira would go to Camp to visit Starlight. I didn't want to risk my brothers putting the dots together. I was already sure that Athena knew, but she wasn't telling for some reason. Safira walked in and disturbed my thoughts. Her voice was soft most of the time, but it was annoyed now.

_Are we going to go or not?_

_How did you…_

_KNOW? I am a part of you. I know what is going on in that crazy head of yours. Have you made up your mind? Because frankly I'm starting to get a migraine, and the sea knows when that happens…_

_Alright. Alright. We will go, but be back here in an hour._

_That doesn't give me much time._

_Safira we can't be there for hours, just a quick hello._

_Fine!_

I knew she was still annoyed and angry. She normally got to visit her children more often than this, and this was her first foal in centuries. She didn't normally have foals there was a serious risk to them, but they were also the most blessed. I willed myself into the sea breeze and it took me to the apartment. It was night-time when I sneaked into Percy's room through a window and reformed into a man. I walked over to Percy's crib, and smiled down at the baby. He was sleeping peacefully and I touched his cheek. He woke up and stared at me curiously. He had my sea green eyes. His eyes filled with amusement and he started to laugh. Yep he was definitely my child. I chuckled to myself.

"Percy?" Sally called.

I quickly left the room the way I had come and I heard Percy start to cry. It tarred my heart to pieces, but I knew I couldn't go back.

Safira

I knew I would be able to persuade him to go. He was miserable when he wasn't watching Sally and Percy and he feared that when Percy learned who he was that he would resent him. But that's a fear all gods took responsibility for. I walked on the beach at Camp Half-Blood and began to canter toward the stables. I entered the stables and found the pegasi sleeping. One of them woke up, but quickly told it to go back to sleep. I trotted toward my daughter's pen. She was sleeping in the hay filled stall. I nickered at her, and she woke up. She looked at me confused and then astonishment. I felt a tickling on my mind and I let her in.

_Mom?_

_Yes, my daughter._

She stood up on wobbly legs. Guardians mature faster than their apprentices to protect them, but she was still young and uncertain of her legs.

_Mom, I…I…_

_Relax my sweet, I cannot stay long. I simply came to say hello._

She laid back down, and a warm sea breeze made her drift back to sleep. I watched her sleep until it was time to leave, and I returned to the ocean and to Poseidon.

**Well that's it. What did you think? I sometimes rush into things and I'm trying to work on it. The next chapter will be I Play Pinochle With a Horse because that is when Percy arrives at camp unless I get any other ideas. Although he doesn't actually see Starlight until later, and more info on the Guardians will be introduced with each up date, and you will know everything once Percy knows it lol. Anyway until next time. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone this is chapter 2. Nothing changes in the book until Percy gets to Camp Half Blood, so that is where I'm going to start the Percy part. Starlight will be mentioned in the next chapter I might do it in her POV in the next chap, and I'll probably try to alternate between her and Percy. Then without further hindrance Starlight if you don't mind…**

**Shizuka4679 does not own PJO!**

Percy

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food. I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. Something whoed on her shoulder, my eyes went up to the noise and a small owl was sitting there. It was staring at me with such intensity that I looked back to the girl.

When she saw my eyes on her, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

I managed to croak, "What?"

She looked around; as if afraid someone would over hear. The owl nibbled her hair, but she ignored it, "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't…"

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The next time I woke up, the girl and the owl were gone.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, and the backs of his hands.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest.

My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, not the goat boy.

So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And…

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I…well, the least I could do… I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"

"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."

Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"My mom. Is she really…"

He looked down.

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight. My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."

He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof- shaped hole.

"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light. I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with…Smelly Gabe?

No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.

I said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."

"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least…I was."

"But why…" I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.

And not just any cookies-my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.

Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Was it good?" Grover asked.

I nodded.

"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."

His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just… wondered."

"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."

He sighed. "And how do you feel?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."

"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."

"What do you mean?"

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table.

"Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.

My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture an open- air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings. But the thing that held my attention most of all was that with every kid there was an animal beside them. They ranged from your domestic cat or dog to lions and tigers. I kept wondering how on earth did all of these animals get along.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. The little owl still there on her shoulder it whoed at her and she stared at it like having a silent conversation.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He has a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.

He wore a tiger- pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feelings this guy could've out-gambled even my step father. But what made me stop dead in my tracks was a huge tiger. It was the size of a car; it was sleeping around this cherub person like it was his pet.

"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron…"

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

First I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

Forgetting the tiger I cried, "Mr. Brunner!"

The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint the sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.

"Ah, good Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." As if in reinforcement the tiger growled at me. Mr. D looked down at the tiger again as if having a silent conversation with it. Then the tiger snorted and went back to sleep.

"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from both of them because I didn't want to become tiger chow and if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blonde girl.

She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."

She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds: pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. Then there was the owl on her shoulder its feathers were chocolate brown with caramel streaks and its eyes were the same piercing grey. They both glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. The owl looked at her as if talking to her. She started studying me and the Minotaur horn. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.

The owl looked amused and instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."

Then her owl lifted its wings and flew off her arms, as she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her, along with her owl.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex- Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D… does that stand for something?"

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly, and the tiger lifted its head back up and growled again. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."

"House call?"

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to… ah, take a leave of absence."

I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.

"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.

Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother; let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Grover," Mr. D impatiently, "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a Tiger-print Hawaiian shirt, or maybe it wasn't the man at all, maybe it was the tiger licking its lips as Grover sat down. Then the tiger looked at me.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

"I'm afraid not," I said.

"I'm afraid not, sir," he said, as the tiger growled.

"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director and the tiger less and less.

"Well," he told me, "It is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."

"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.

"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here Mr. Brunner/ Chiron" why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"

Mr. D snorted, "I asked the same question."

The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile. Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.

"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?"

"She said…" I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"

"What?" I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.

"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."

"Orientation film?" I asked.

"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-"he pointed to the horn in the shoe box-"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."

I stared at the others around the table. I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Eh? Oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.

"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."

"Well, now," Chiron said. "God-capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."

"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"

"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."

"Smaller?"

"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."

"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."

And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloud less day.

"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."

"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

The tiger stood up and roared. I jumped my heart rising into my throat.

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"- I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."

I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if…he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump back in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.

"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.

"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.

"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how could you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."

"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured as he patted the tiger on the head, and it sat back down. "Before one of them incinerates you."

Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe."

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," He warned, "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

More thunder.

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph that had been declared off-limits."

"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I shouldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha' Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.

"And…" I stammered, "your father is…"

"_Di immortals_, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.

"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"

"You're a god."

"Yes, child."

"A god. You."

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.

"Would you like to test me, child?" He said quietly and the tiger glared at me.

"No. No, sir."

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."

I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheel chair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.

"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."

He and the tiger swept into the farm house, Grover following miserably.

"Will Grover be ok?" I asked Chiron. "He won't become tiger chow will he?"

Chiron looked a bit troubled. "Ah, so you can see her. The she-tiger's name is Daila. She is Dionysus's guardian. She will not hurt Grover."

"Guardian?"

"Yes, that's a long concept to explain though. For now you should understand not to touch anyone's guardian and guardians don't attack apprentices. Which is you."

"I'm not an apprentice and I don't have a guardian."

"Oh, but you are and you will, soon enough."

"But…?"

"Relax, all will be explained later; Grover will be fine, Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been-ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he is allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"

"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."

"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like…in America?"

"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."

"The what?"

"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western Civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know-or as I hope you know, since you passed my course-the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."

It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.

"Who are you, Chiron? Who…who am I?"

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he was going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you?" He mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."

**Well I thought I would add more to this chapter, but I guess I didn't, sorry. Tell me what you thought of Daila. Grover will not have a guardian, but I'm not sure about Chiron. Any thoughts? Please review, the more reviews the faster I will update. ****J**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again, this chapter will mostly be in Starlight's point of view, but there might be Percy's at the end. Chiron if you don't mind.**

**Shizuka4679 does not own PJO! **

Starlight

Well I suppose I should explain some stuff…man this is annoying. I never know how to start, but I guess the first thing you should know is I am a mare. Guardians are always the opposite… gender of their apprentice; don't ask why that is just how it is. I wasn't born here at Camp Half-Blood, but I've been here for who knows how long. Normally guardians show up when there apprentices do, but of course I had to be trouble because I didn't like anybody at this camp. Big surprise, nobody seemed right. Eventually Daila turned me loose out in the woods thinking I was a regular horse. There were other horses and pegasi around, but I never hung around them. Since I didn't belong there, and I would not choose anyone as my apprentice, I fled to the woods. Occasionally a camper would come into the woods and see me, but most of them would respect my space. However there was a few that had tried to catch me, but I could out run all the horses here. I had been on my own for as long as I remember. I mean sure, Chiron looked after me when I was little, but I never stayed in one place. The one comforting memory I have was of my mother, I don't remember much about the encounter, and I'm not sure if it was real. I just remember that her coat was a white as sea foam and her eyes were a deep sea green. I learned from… uh… listening in on the conversations of the demigods that mortals had guardians too, but they could not see them, so I wondered if some day I would be able to see my father. But that was as likely as my apprentice showing up, that is, until a couple of days ago. This boy showed up at camp. I've been watching him since he got here wounded and tired. Andrew and his apprentice nursed him back to health and they were setting his place up in cabin eleven. Chiron was walking the boy around, showing him the camp. I could tell he was still confused and buzzing with questions he wanted answered. A lot of the campers were pointing at him and whispering. I caught a few sentences, like "That's him." Or "He is the one that killed it."

I followed Chiron and Percy keeping my distance and staying in the woods, because there was one girl that had come close to catching me, one time, and she was lucky she got that close. Her guardian was a vulture named Cadell. She was a daughter of Ares, and I kept my distance from her.

"What's up there?" the boy asked Chiron.

He and I looked up at where he was pointing, and Chiron's smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

Well that was true, the oracle was neither dead nor alive, so he was telling the truth, sort of.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

I could see that Percy was taking in his surroundings the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. Chiron started explaining how this paid for the expenses, and I lost interest. Then the boy asked about a satyr.

"I mean…he was a good protector. Really."

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus, Daila, and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate…ah…fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

I felt a surge of emotions from the boy grief, guilt, and anger. I knew he wanted to protest.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age…"

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career…"

"That's not fair," He said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

You have no idea.

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

I saw the boy about to protest, but something changed on his face, recognition maybe or realization then hope.

"Chiron," He said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real…"

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Chiron's expression darkened.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now…until we know more…I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

I quickly hid better as I watched them.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" He asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do have your own sword and shield?"

"My own-?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."

I continued to follow them as Chiron took Percy around camp. To the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" he asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," Chiron explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" Percy asked.

Chiron looked at him as if He'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?"

Finally, he showed Percy the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen, not that I had seen many.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick, Hestia.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" He asked.

"Correct." Chiron answered.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Suddenly he stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. Poseidon.

Poseidon had decorated and made his cabin out of the sea. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. Percy started to go toward it. I got ready to spring in case he went inside, but Chiron stopped him.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

He pulled him away from the cabin, and said, "Come along, Percy."

They continued looking at the other cabins. I saw Percy look inside of number five Ares. Percy got a disgusted look on his face and followed Chiron I didn't blame him.

"We haven't seen any other centaurs." Percy said.

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really…"

He smiled down at Percy. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?"

Chiron ignored him.

"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth and Andrew are waiting for us."

I snorted, Andrew, that bird could be a real pain in the neck, always arguing, well Percy is in for it with him. They reached her and she was looking over him critically, and so was Andrew.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Cabin eleven was Hermes, and it was always packed with undetermined campers.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

I watched Percy trip, making a total fool of himself, into the cabin and waited for him to come out.

After about ten minutes Percy came out, or was being dragged out by Andrew's apprentice. They got a few feet away.

"Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

"What's your problem?" He said getting angry. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told him. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

He shook his head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories…"

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…"

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

Andrew whoed at him angrily.

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

"You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fur…I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

`"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" He started sounding whiny. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

He pointed to the first few cabins, and Andrew's apprentice turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or…your parent."

She stared at him, waiting for him to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," He said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

She sighed. I knew how many times she's had this conversation. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

Andrew ruffled his feathers getting annoyed. "No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

He swallowed, embarrassed, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD - you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

He looked confused, and then he asked. "What are guardians?"

"You can see them already?"

"Yes."

She looked at her owl, having a silent conversation with it.

Percy looked annoyed, "Are you talking to it or something?"

Andrew whoed at him angrily.

She glared at him, "It is impolite to interrupt an apprentice and guardian talking."

He paused, "You were talking to it?"

"Yes, apprentices and guardians can communicate telepathically. When you find yours we will teach you how to do it. And his name is Andrew not it. Guardians are a piece of your soul. They have a stronger connection to your emotions and will react to those emotions. They are a part of you, and they will jump to protect you. Like their names imply, they guard or protect you from other apprentice's guardians. Guardians are not allowed to attack another apprentice, but I won't say it never happens. However, they are usually provoked. Most guardians will fight alongside their apprentice, but it takes years to get the timing correct. Sometimes they can have unusual abilities. They also serve as a guide, sometimes. Apprentices are not allowed to touch another's guardian, along with communicating with another guardian, it is just considered impolite and morally wrong."

He looked if possible more confused.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

Percy and I looked over. It was the big girl from the Ares cabin. Her vulture guardian Cadell and three other girls with their guardians, a vulture, a pig and a serpent walked behind her. They were all ugly and wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," The big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth yelled. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned to Percy and I immediately wanted to jump in front of him. "Who's this little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares and Cadell, Son of Aja."

Percy blinked, "Like… the war god?"

Clarisse sneered, "You got a problem with that?"

"No," He said, "It explains the bad smell."

I wanted to hit my head against a tree.

Clarisse growled and her vulture lifted its wings. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth looked pained and Andrew eyes got wide and his feathers pulled together, but she did stay out of it.

Percy handed the Minotaur horn to Annabeth and got ready to fight. Clarisse grabbed him by the neck and dragged him toward a cinder-block building that I knew was the bathroom.

He was kicking and punching to no avail. I neighed at him a little too loud, and Annabeth and Andrew looked over at me. Annabeth looked astonished and Andrew watched me quizzically. I pawed the earth and tossed my head. Annabeth looked back at Percy then me. Realization came across her face, as she turned back to Percy.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."

Her friends snickered.

Annabeth watched through her fingers.

Suddenly I felt a surge of emotion and a tug in my gut, and I let it go. Water blasted out of the bathroom, hitting Clarisse straight and her friends in the face and it pushed her and her friends outside of the bathroom. Cadell had a look of astonishment on his face.

I cut Percy off, of the water powers, and I looked at Annabeth and she was soaked, but she hadn't been pushed back on the ground. Annabeth looked at me and I bobbed my head up and down. I looked back at Percy who was on shaky legs and he was completely dry. Annabeth looked at him, but Andrew kept watching me, "How did you…"

"I don't know."

Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave Percy a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

Please let it go, Percy, of course not.

"You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her and Cadell toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet and Cadell talons.

Annabeth stared at him. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She looked over Percy shoulders at me.

"What?" he demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," She said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."

They walked away, Annabeth shot one more look toward me and I decided to leave.

**Well no Percy part, but got to learn about Starlight's past or at least parts of it, go into more detail probably later when she talks with Percy. It will be Percy's POV in the next chap I think. Well tell me what you thought, haven't gotten any replies on if Chiron should have a guardian and still stumped on that. Ok I need your help, I am done with next chap, but not much changed because its in Percy's POV, but it does have Lukes guardian in it, and some of the gods guardians names and one of their abilities. Should I post or just tell you what they are at the beginning of next chap which would be capture the flag, please help. Please review, the more reviews the faster I will update. Until next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi again, this chapter will be in Percy's POV not sure how much I'll add though. The next chap gets exciting so stay tuned. Andrew if you please.**

**Shizuka4679 does not own PJO!**

Percy

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet and so was Andrew.

She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."

Andrew glared at me, and Annabeth said, "Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault."

She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said. Andrew looked at her shocked.

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."

I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.

I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.

I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."

Annabeth frowned and Andrew shook his head. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"

"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?"

"I think you know."

I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.

"God," I said. "Half-god."

Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's ... crazy."

"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"

"But those are just - " I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods - "

"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

"Then who's your dad?"

Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.

"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."

"He's human."

"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"

"Who's your mom, then?"

"Cabin six."

"Meaning?"

Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle. Andrew is the son of Altair."

Okay, I thought. Why not?

"And my dad?"

"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mother. She knew."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."

"My dad would have. He loved her."

Annabeth gave me a cautious look and Andrew ruffled his feathers. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.

"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"

Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.

"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"

"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble - about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

"So monsters can't get in here?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights. Practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

"So ... you're a year-rounder?"

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did you come so young?"

She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."

"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"

"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."

"Unless?"

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ..."

Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.

"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff - "

"Ambrosia."

"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."

Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"

"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"

She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."

"You've been to Olympus?"

"Some of us year-rounders - Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others - we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."

"But... how did you get there?"

"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"

"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.

"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean - Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."

I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.

"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ..."

I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.

Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.

The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact. His guardian was a red hawk. She had bright blue eyes that always seemed to be smiling.

"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.

I said, "Thanks."

"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."

"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.

"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The wing-footed messenger guy."

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.

"Once."

"What about his guardian?"

He looked at me skeptically then said, "Her name is Heidi. She is a hawk too, but sometimes she shape-shifts into something else. Our guardians can't do that, but the gods can. Their guardians can shape-shift into any animal they favor, or created."

"What's her name?" I asked looking at his guardian.

"Lina Daughter of Heidi." He paused. "I don't know if Annabeth told you, but guardians are always the opposite gender of us. Nobody really knows why."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Did you ever talk to your dad and his guardian?"

I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him - even if he was a counselor - should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.

I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"

Luke folded his knife, but his guardian squeezed his shoulders. "I hate prophecies."

"What do you mean?"

His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."

"Somebody special?"

"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.

Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"

The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods - and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers and guardians, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.

I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D and Daila, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.

Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want - nonalcoholic, of course."

I said, "Cherry Coke."

The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.

Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."

The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.

I took a cautious sip. Perfect.

I drank a toast to my mother.

She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...

"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.

I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.

"Come on," Luke told me.

As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

"You're kidding."

His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

I was next.

I wished I knew what god's name to say.

Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.

I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh, and Daila yawned. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.

My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.

When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.

I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.

**Well again didn't add much, sorry, but that because I did this chap in Percy's POV. The next Chap well flip back in forth between Starlight and Percy. Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

** Hello again, this one is going to be long, but I won't say anymore. Again sorry about the last chapter, there just wasn't much to add, and I want to keep Percy's POV in the story. Well without further a due Cadell if you please…**

**No**

**Yes **

**No**

**Yes**

**No!**

**YES!**

**Fine! Shizuka4679 does not and will never own PJO!**

Starlight

Well over the next couple of days I settled into a routine. Wake up in the morning and go watch Percy. He took Ancient Greek from Andrew's apprentice, Annabeth. Which bored me and I went back to the woods to graze. Annabeth saw me a couple of times, and one time she motioned for me to come up, but it didn't feel right and I backed up. I had to test, Percy to see if he was ready. Ready means ready to fight alongside yourself, Guardians are an extension of themselves and sometimes it takes awhile for the apprentice to fully understand that. Which there have been a few cases like that, but they get another chance. Apprentices don't understand that if you fail your test the guardian doesn't make the connection with them just yet. The apprentice will get another chance, of course, but no one except his or her guardian would know when to try again. I hoped that when the time came that Percy would understand. I knew he was my apprentice, and eventually I would choose him, just not now.

The rest of the day, Percy would rotate in outdoor activities because they were trying to find out who Percy's father was, but most of the time Percy would make a fool of himself. In archery class with Chiron well you know he wasn't aiming for the centaur's tail, but it got there none the less.

Then there was the foot racing, and I felt bad for him here. He was meant to ride, not run on two legs. I mean what is the point of two legs anyway you can't go very fast. He gave it his best shot though, and I could tell he was humiliated about being slower than a tree.

And wrestling? Forget it. Any time he would jump up on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize him. Then she would mumble something in his ear, didn't know what it was, but it made me want to pound her into the ground even more.

The only thing that he was good at was canoeing, and I could tell that the counselors were not impressed. They were trying to figure him out, but they were not having much luck.

Thursday afternoon, three days after He'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, He had his first sword fighting lesson. Luke, Son of Hermes and Lina, Daughter of Heidi were the instructors. Percy was pretty good at it, or at least he understood what to do. Percy for some reason was off balance like the sword didn't fit him correctly, but there was nothing I could do about that. The campers and guardians then moved into dueling partners and Luke was Percy's partner.

I heard one of the campers say "Good luck. Luke is the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

"Maybe he'll go easy on me." Percy said.

Both the camper and I snorted.

Luke showed him thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, Percy got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," Luke would say, then whap Percy in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

Luke finally called break and Percy was soaked. At that moment I got the erg to go to him, but I stayed were I was watching. Luke and Percy threw some ice water on their heads. Percy instantly felt better, I smiled.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."

Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.

The campers were suppressing smiles, while Luke was explaining the disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

As Luke demonstrated the move in slow motion on Percy I thought, just you wait; you don't know what you are in for. Percy's sword clattered to the ground. Come on, Percy.

"Now in real time," Luke said, after Percy retrieved his weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

He nodded, and Luke went up to him. I opened my mind up to Percy's with the help of the water that was still on him and I felt his senses open up. Percy saw Luke's attacks coming, and he countered. He stepped forward and tried to thrust his sword, but Luke deflected it easily. Luke's eyes changed and he started pressing Percy with more force. Our connection wasn't perfect yet so I began to retreat. Percy then did the disarming maneuver and Luke's sword clattered to the ground. Percy's sword was an inch from Luke's undefended chest.

The other campers were silent.

Percy lowered his sword, "Um, sorry."

Luke was stunned.

"Sorry?" Luke smiled. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again?"

Percy didn't want to and he protested, but Luke won. This time it was no contest Luke hit his hilt and Percy's sword went skidding across the floor.

"Beginner's luck?" Somebody asked.

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow, and Lina came over to him, landing on his shoulder. She looked at Percy with no found interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword…"

I left Percy there, and went back deeper into the forest.

Next morning, Percy was with Annabeth again learning Ancient Greek. When she asked, "Have you seen a horse?"

Percy looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

Andrew rolled his eyes and said something into Annabeth's ear, "I mean have you seen a horse hanging around camp?"

"No."

I heard Andrew's thought from here, "How stupid could you be she's right behind you and you never notice her."

I wanted to go kick the owl on his beak maybe then he would shut up.

Annabeth sighed.

"What?"

"You are clueless."

Percy just stared at her. Then I felt a tug on my mind. I glared at him, but opened it up.

Andrew's voice came into my head.

_When are you going to tell him?_

_I snorted. It is not the time._

_You have been following him for this past week ever since he came to camp._

_And? Your point being?_

_Do something about it! I'm not the only one who has seen you. Lina has too and you're lucky she didn't call you out. You know you're not supposed to be this close to camp. Especially since you put Clarisse and Cadell in the hospital for a week. Do you have any idea what they would do to you if the find out you were here? Chiron won't be able to protect you this time._

_Shut up Owl-head! I've got it figured out._

I disconnected the link. Andrew was still glaring at me. I snorted, and ran off back to the trees. Capture the flag was tonight, and I had to be in my safe circle, so no one would attack me, or me them.

Percy

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he said. "Just great."

"So your career's still on track?"

He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"

"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

"Of course I'd want you along!"

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."

I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"But Zeus and Poseidon - they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word - no kids?"

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo - he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia and her guardian Gian... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."

Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the Minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods and their guardians to safety while she and her guardian held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

I stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?

"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

"No. Never. Orpheus came close... Percy, you're not seriously thinking -"

"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."

"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."

Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were - you know - you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth, her guardian Andrew, and two of her siblings with their guardians ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse, her vulture guardian Cadell, and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do - repaint the flag?"

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded - shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities - in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke and Lina looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here - Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. And remember when I said that guardians usually don't attack apprentices…well just remember not to make any of the guardians angry. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."Andrew whoed in agreement, I think.

She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

Starlight

I was grazing at Thaila's pine tree when I felt a cold chill go down my spine. My head shot up thinking, Percy? I trotted two steps up toward the direction of the battle. My senses were on high alert. I lifted my head and sniffed the air. A breeze blew carrying the scent of the forest and monsters. I looked in toward the camp and I saw a hell hound making its way to the battlefield. Do I stay here or go?

I made a snap decision, and leaped forward, running as fast as I could.

Percy

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors and their guardians came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. Cadell and his two vulture buddies took to the air circling us.

Clarisse's ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords - not that that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.

They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabin mates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy - warm and cold at the same time.

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

Clarisse's guardian looked at me with hatred, and flew at me slashing me across my collar bone, but this injury felt different like he hadn't given it to me. My hand shot up to my collar bone, and I felt warm blood go across my fingers, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Off in the distance though I thought I heard a horse scream.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm and collar bone. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut and Cadell," I said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut and a vulture scratch. Look at them."

I looked from my wound on my arm to the scratch on my collar bone. The blood was gone. Where the huge cuts had been, there were long white scratches, and even they were fading. As I watched, they turned into small scars, and disappeared.

"I - I don't get it," I said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What -"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus..."

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her - an enormous shadow with teeth - and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.

Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I - I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

I stood there in stunned silence, "Um…," was about all I could get out.

Then out of nowhere another hell hound lumbered out of the forest. It growled at me and licked its jaws. Chiron drew another arrow, but something else called in challenge.

Everyone looked behind me, standing there was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. Its coat was inky black except for the white star on its forehead. The horse pawed the earth and neighed again in challenge. The hell hound looked back and forth between us, unsure of what to do. The horse took the opportunity to trot up past me. The hell hound roared, but the horse didn't back off it reared up pawing the air neighing in defiance. The hell hound charged, but the horse just stood there. The horse turned around its hind quarters now facing the hell hound. The horse watched it approach calculating its distance then WAM! The horse kicked the hell hound on the head. The hound staggered back and growled at the horse. The horse snorted in response. I felt a tug on my mind and I backed up. I felt it again and I backed up some more. The tugging stopped and the horse stood in front of me. The horse charged forward meeting the hell hound. The hound dodged and slammed into the horse's side. The horse staggered off balance as the hound clawed its way up onto the horses back. Blood now glistened on the horse's coat. The hell hound bit down on the horse's neck, and the horse screamed. The horse reared up and lunged into a somersault. The hound fell off in the water and the horse turned around and reared up again right over the hell hound's head and came smashing down on it. The horse snorted in satisfaction as the hell hound sunk beneath the land, and turned to look at me.

The horse's eyes were chocolate brown. They studied me in a way that made me uncomfortable.

"That horse is mine!" Clarisse yelled.

"No, it isn't." Annabeth yelled back.

"Shut up, Princess."

I found my voice again, "No, she isn't Clarisse."

I looked over the horse and found a slash on its collar bone. Now I understood, what Annabeth had asked. She must have seen the horse following me. I took a tentative step toward the horse. She lifted her head and snorted, taking a step back.

Clarisse yelled, "NO!"

Then the horse stopped looking at me and turned toward Clarisse. She tossed her head and galloped away bucking at Clarisse. I wanted to run after the horse and tell it everything was ok, but I blinked and it was gone. Although, now I knew where my guardian was there was no denying it now.

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	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone, this chapter doesn't take place in the book, so please critique and review. This chap will also flip back and forth between Percy and Starlight. Percy if you please.**

**Shizuka4679 does not own PJO.**

Percy

We were walking back to our own cabins; Annabeth was talking to me the whole way there, and unfortunately I wasn't paying much attention. I was thinking about my mire mess hap with the hellhounds, Chiron, and the black mare who had saved me. When we had made eye contact, it was weird the way I had felt, like I don't know, I can't explain it, but if I had to, it felt like I was home with my mother and without Smelly Gabe. But it was also different than that, it also felt like Clarisse's spear had been stabbed into my chest and I had been left to bleed out. I know strange right.

"PERCY!" Annabeth yelled, "Are you listening to me?"

"Umm…"

Annabeth sighed. Andrew looked at Annabeth having one of their silent conversations.

I felt like they were talking about me, so I decided to ask, although I hoped it wasn't against the rules.

"What's he saying?"

"He said that you were thinking about the black mare, but being that we were trying to talk to you about the black mare you shouldn't have ignored us."

"How did he know what I was thinking?" I asked feeling a little violated.

"He can read you like a book."

"What?"

"He can read your eyes. Guardians can read emotions because of your eyes. Your eyes can say a lot if you know what to look for."

I stared at them both in stunned silence.

"Would you like to know what I was saying?"

I nodded.

"Well, like I was saying, you need to find the horse before Clarisse."

"Why?"

"Look Percy, there's a serious risk for people who have horse guardians. If you don't get to her you could lose her."

"But I thought nobody else could touch your guardian."

"I said that it was against the rules to touch another's guardian, but all rules can be broken there are consequences of course, anyway, would you like it if somebody reached inside you and touched your soul?"

"No."

"Then there is your answer."

"What do I need to do?"

"I thought I established that? You have to find her."

"But how?"

"Common think Jackson how did people in old westerns catch horses?"

"They rode out and roped them."

"EXACTLY!"

"You're telling that I have to go out into the woods and catch a run away horse?"

"Yes, isn't that crystal clear?" She paused. "You need to catch her tonight."

"Tonight? Why?"

"You want to make the bond as quick as possible."

"Bond?"

"The most vulnerable time for a guardian is before the first touch of the apprentice. If somebody else touches the guardian first it could turn."

"What do you mean?"

"She could be forced to follow Clarisse instead."

I stopped dead, and looked at her. The idea of the mare following Clarisse made my stomach churn. Annabeth turned to look at me her eyes held something I could not place.

"Ok, I'll go tonight."

Annabeth smiled, "I'm going too."

"I thought you had to do this by yourself."

"I can't interfere, but I can help you look, and make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Thanks."

Annabeth smiled.

When we arrived at our respective cabins we agreed that once everybody fell asleep. We would sneak out, so that's what we did.

(Line break)

"What took you so long?" Annabeth asked. Andrew looked annoyed and pulled on Annabeth's hair.

"Let's see you sneak away from the Hermes Cabin unseen." I shot back.

"When do you move to Cabin Three?"

"Tomorrow morning."

She nodded and started walking toward the stables, "Where are you going?"

"Do you think that we can just walk up to a wild horse and put a rope on it?"

"I hadn't really thought that far."

She rolled her eyes, "Of course not."

She entered the stables and pulled out a grey stallion and a sorrel mare. She gave the mare to me, "Saddle up."

We got the horses ready and left the stables on horseback.

"Here" Annabeth handed me a rope, and smiled at me.

I smiled back, grabbed the rope, and put it on my saddle.

"Where do we look first?" I asked her.

"Let's check the forest first."

"Then let's go."

We kicked our horses into a gallop and shot off toward the forest.

Starlight

I was grazing by Zephyros Creek thinking about today's events. My side still stung from the hell hounds claws, but that was nothing from the slash across my neck, that was still oozing blood. That was from Cadell, when he attacked Percy and cut him, his and my collar bones were affected, it was considered a failure if another guardian hurt your apprentice, so the consequences of this action is that the injury is worse for the guardian. I pulled on a piece of grass and pain from my neck shot through my body. I snorted. It will be awhile before this heals. The wind blew against my nose and I smelled horses and demigods. I lifted my head and took a couple steps back. I looked around. I concentrated on the ground to feel the vibrations through the ground. There was one horse across the creek, and two on my side of the creek.

"There you are." Clarisse whispered. Cadell was on her shoulder. She was riding a palomino mare, that didn't look very happy.

I turned to look at her. I snorted, pinned my ears down, and pawed the ground trying to tell her to back off.

"Don't even try to run, you're injured for your earlier battle," She laughed "Even if you are Kelp Heads guardian…"

Cadell shot off her shoulder and flew into the sky. Clarisse spurred her horse forward, and I turned and shot in the other direction. I heard her horse splash through the creek and run after me. I ran as fast as I could with my injuries, but I knew eventually she would over take me. I weaved around trees and jumped over debris. That's when I heard a voice that made me stop dead.

"Annabeth look!"

It was Percy and Annabeth. I looked behind me, and then looked to Percy. I pawed the earth and ran off. Percy steered his horse and turned to follow me.

"No!" Clarisse screamed.

"Clarisse! Leave them alone!" Annabeth said, as she steered her grey horse in front of the palomino almost colliding with it.

I continued running with Percy on my tail. I heard the swinging of a rope. Alright Percy, game on. I shot off toward the camp border. Let's see how brave you really are. I kept within eye distance of Percy. I didn't want to lose him just yet. That's when I heard Annabeth catch up to Percy on her grey stallion.

"She's headed for the border. If she crosses it you can't follow."

She didn't get a response from Percy. I saw the border and I galloped toward it, the pain in my neck was getting stronger. I felt the border crack as I jumped through it. I continued running through the forest that surrounded the camp; I came to a stop around 31 horse lengths away from the border. Percy and Annabeth were standing just inside the border, Clarisse pulled up beside them. Maybe Percy wasn't ready. I started to turn away when I heard Annabeth yell, "Percy!"

I felt another crack from the border and saw Percy on the sorrel mare charging down toward me. I snorted and reared in challenge and turned on my hind quarters and took off once again, weaving in and out of trees, and jumping over fallen tree branches I didn't realize how far we had gone from camp, until I didn't recognize the trees any more. I slowed to take in my surroundings, and try to lead us back to camp, but then I felt a rope go around my neck and tighten. I stopped and so did Percy. I looked at him over my shoulder. I whipped around, pinned my ears, rearing up and screamed at the horse he was riding. The horse spooked and threw Percy. Percy landed with a thud on the dirt. He watched the horse run off, and then looked at me. I watched him. We were about three horse lengths away from each other. Then I looked back and forth between the rope and him. He looked down at the rope in his hands and then back to me. He stood up, cautiously. I pinned my ears down and neighed at him angrily.

"Hey…It's ok." He soothed.

I relaxed my ears, and cocked my head at him. He started to walk forward. I tossed my head and stepped back. I saw hurt in his eyes, but he stopped moving forward. I relaxed again and studied him. His bright sea-green eyes were worried. I shifted on my hooves. He looked down at the ground. I nickered at him. He looked back up at me. I took at step forward, and he tensed. I chuckled to myself. He looked indecisive, as he raised his hand and stretched out his arm. I looked at his hand, and started walking forward, slowly. With every step forward his face lit up. I smiled. I stopped inches away from his hand. I was about to lean into it when I heard a twig snap behind us. My head shot up at the noise, I quickly looked around. I sniffed the air, and turned away from Percy. I walked forward, listening for more sounds. None came. I moved one of my ears toward Percy, and was about to turn back to him when I heard a low growl. I looked around again starting to prance. That's when I saw a pair of yellow eyes. I saw the whip before it came. I dodged and saw my attacker, it was a fury. Before I had time to stop and think my instincts took over and I sprinted for the camp border, but that's when I remembered something Percy was still there. The rope went tight around my neck as he held on to the rope. The rope wrapped around his hand and I pulled him along dragging him behind me. The fury took to the air trying to catch up as I ran. The trees erupted behind us and a ghost of some sort came after me. My blood turned to ice and I had to fight to keep focus. The fury came down to slash at me, but I weaved around a tree and she missed. We will never make to the border. The fury came down again, but this time it made contact. My back erupted in pain. I felt the reopening of cuts that I had gotten from the hell hound. That's when an idea hit me, it was crazy and stupid, but I could do it. I snorted and came to a skidding halt. The fury flew forward and hit a nearby tree. I wheeled around and ran past Percy. The ghost was closing in on us and the closer it got the more panicked I felt. I turned again and neighed at Percy as I ran up to him. I happy to say he got the message. He jumped onto my back. My side and back shot with pain, because he hadn't jumped all the way up. I turned my head to help push him up. He was finally up and I kept weaving looking for the border. My panic kept rising as the ghost got closer. I started breathing heavy. Percy grabbed my mane for balance, then I felt him pull to the left, and I followed. There was a huge log up ahead. He steered me toward it. As we got closer to it I realized it was part of the camp border. I used the last of my strength to sprint for it. The ghost started to falter. I heard a screech from the fury and the ghost charged forward and touched my left back leg. I screamed as terror filed my limbs. Percy kicked me forward and I jumped over the log, back into friendly territory. I slowed down as we approached the strawberry fields. I stopped my body still shaking. I was breathing heavily. Percy released his grip on my mane. I turned my head to look at him. He inhaled quickly, as he looked at his hands, and jumped off of me. His hands were bloody. He looked at me sorrow filling his eyes. I shook my head side to side and breathed on his face, trying to tell him not to worry.

"Percy!?"

I looked in the direction of the voice and immediately backed up. Chiron cantered into view. Percy looked down.

Chiron glared at him, "Of all the stupid things to do! What were you thinking?"

"I caught her."

"What?"

Percy gestured toward me. Chiron looked at me his eyes went from confused to astonishment.

He sighed, "What is her name?"

Now it was Percy's turn to be confused, "What?"

"You made the connection with her. What is her name?"

He looked at me extending his mind as best he could, and touched my nose. A bolt of electricity went through my body.

_Starlight._

He recoiled both the touch and his mind.

"Her name is Starlight."

He nodded.

Clarisse and Annabeth rode up.

Annabeth yelled, "What were you thinking? Oh wait you weren't."

"Shut up, princess." Clarisse yelled back.

"What are you doing out here at this time of night?" Chiron asked them.

"I was helping Percy." Annabeth said.

"Umm…" Clarisse said. "I'm going back to my cabin."

She left us there, and I looked up to see Cadell following her. Andrew glided down to Annabeth's shoulder. He looked at me and nodded. I nickered at him.

"Her eyes…did they change?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes, they are sea-green like her apprentices." Chiron said. "Come on, you two need to get to bed and Starlight…" I looked at him, "You are going to the infirmary."

I snorted, but followed him.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Hey sorry it's been awhile… college just started back up and I'm trying to get back into the grove of things and I've been feeling under the weather. I probably won't update as often as I did, but I will try for once a week. Thanks for your patience. Annabeth if you please…**

**Shizuka4679 does not own PJO!**

Percy

That morning I was moved into Cabin three. I didn't really know how to feel. But if I had to sum it up I would say that for the first time I was truly alone. I quickly left the cabin the first chance I got. I had no idea where I was going, but I found myself at the infirmary. I heard a neigh from inside and a loud bang.

I heard Chiron inside, "Calm down or I'll never get this done."

I walked inside, and found that Starlight was backed into a corner pinning her ears down at Chiron. I wasn't a horse expert, but that didn't look good.

"Umm?..."

"Percy, hello your guardian doesn't, even like me to touch her."

"I thought it was wrong to touch another's guardian."

"Oh, it is, but being me, I can touch as long as I'm doing medicinal practices. I've been at this all night."

Starlight tossed her head and neighed at him.

"Watch your tongue young filly."

She snorted at him and turned to look at me. Her green eyes softened and she pawed the ground. I looked at Chiron.

Chiron chuckled, "Here I'll show you how to bandage her."

As we began to put medicine on her Chiron talked to me about the different ways of the horse.

"You can wrap legs, but there is not much we can do about the side injuries."

"So how do you fix them?" I asked as I looked at the scratch on her neck that was the worst. She nickered at me.

Chiron was silent for awhile. I turned to look at him. He gave me a questioning stare, but I was confused.

"You need to learn to open your mind to hers."

Starlight nodded. Chiron continued his lecture.

"Horses a very unique, especially guardians."

"Why?"

"Unlike, guardians like Cadell or Andrew, Starlight and you can fight side by side, the others cannot do this to well."

I was still confused. Starlight neighed at Chiron. He looked at her and smiled.

"Think for a minute Percy, what did mortals ride into battle? There is a unique bond between horse and man. Horses are as strong as they are beautiful."

"You're saying I can ride her and fight at the same time?"

"Yes, but theirs also a risk."

"What is it?" I thought we had passed all the risks.

Chiron got hard of hearing as he handed me items to use as I covered her wounds.

Finally he sighed, "That wound on her neck will not heal soon."

I looked at it, I didn't want to drop the subject, but figured he had his reasons, "That's where I was scratched by Cadell."

"Unfortunately yes."

The horse scream, I heard after I was scratched, that was Starlight.

"When an apprentice is attacked and hurt by a guardian it's a worse scratch for the guardian of that apprentice."

"Why? That's not fair."

"Because she failed to protect you."

I looked at Starlight and she turned away from me.

"I'm going to have Annabeth teach you how to communicate with her. You have a lot to learn about her."

We finished putting medicine on Starlight, and she wanted to follow me. Chiron was against it, but she didn't give him much choice. I started to walk back to my cabin and then thought about how Chiron said I would learn from Annabeth on how to communicate with Starlight, so I ran to Cabin six. Starlight was in a trot behind me. As I got closer to cabin six I started to feel more and more annoyed. When we arrived there I glanced at Starlight, she glared at me. Annabeth came out of the cabin with Andrew on her shoulder. Andrew whoed angrily at Starlight and she snorted in response.

Annabeth asked, "What do you want?"

"Umm… I was wondering if you could teach me how to communicate with Starlight."

Annabeth looked at me, Starlight tossed her head and glared at Andrew.

"Alright, but I'm not your private tutor son of Poseidon."

Starlight pinned her ears down at Annabeth and growled, is it even possible for a horse to growl? Apparently it is. I put a hand on Starlight's neck and she relaxed.

Annabeth smirked.

"What?"

"You have a strong connection with her."

"Really?"

"Yes, it took me awhile to learn how to calm Andrew."

I probably should have let it go, but I just can't help myself sometimes, "When is that beak-face ever calm?"

Andrew and Annabeth glared at me and Starlight was making a weird neighing noise, and I realized she was laughing. I smiled at her.

"Do you want my help?"

"Yes…"

Andrew ruffled his feathers. Annabeth sat down on the porch and asked, "How much do you already know?"

I sat down in front of her and Starlight trotted off to graze on some grass. "I just know that you have to open your mind to them."

"Have you tried to talk to her after the bond?"

"Just when Chiron asked me her name."

Annabeth nodded. When I first touched her mind I had felt a bolt of electricity, but I had felt exposed and safe at the same time. I really didn't want to repeat the feeling.

"It's strange isn't it? The feeling of being exposed and safe."

I looked at her, "Yea."

"That feeling will pass with time. What you need to focus on is the words Starlight is saying to you. It will take a lot of time, but eventually you will be able to talk to her without thinking about it. Go ahead and open your mind to her."

I started to get up but Annabeth stopped me, "Without touching her."

I sat back down, "How do I open my mind without touching her?"

"You have to make your consciousness leave your body and touch hers." She smirked, "It takes a lot of concentration."

I sighed and tried to extend my mind to her. I felt another two other minds, one I guessed was Starlight and the other was probably Andrew. I waited and I felt one meet mine.

_Testing. Testing… 1… 2… 3…_

_Starlight?_

_No it's Beak –face over there._

_Umm…_

_Yes Percy it's me._

_I'm talking to you._

_Yep. Remind me why we have to get lessons from the know it alls._

_Chiron said that I would learn from her._

_Have you ever met Andrew?_

_I've never talked to him._

_Exactly, trust me he is a know it all._

_You can talk to him?_

_Of course, guardians can talk to one another just like you can talk to Annabeth._

_Oh. _

She laughed and disconnected the link. I blinked a couple of times and my eyes focused on Annabeth.

"So what did she say?"

"Just thatshe wasn't happy she was here."

Andrew whoed at Starlight, she twitched her ears and snorted at him. I realized she was talking to him.

Annabeth looked inbetween Andrew and Starlight. "How about we continue this tomorrow?"

"Ok."

Starlight and I walked back to my cabin. I walked inside and surprisingly Starlight followed. She trotted over to the fountain and took a drink. I looked around the room.

I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. Later that night, I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities for the next day, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.

And I was absolutely miserable it probably would have been worse if Starlight wasn't there.

Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid - or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood - I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.

"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."

Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings and guardian communication, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.

After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan ..."

Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear and for Starlight choosing me. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.

I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.

BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER

FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

BY EILEEN SMYTHE

Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.

Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.

Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.

Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.

The phone number was circled in black marker.

I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.

"Lights out," I told myself miserably. I felt a tug on my mind and let Starlight in.

_Hey you ok?_

_Not now Starlight._

I felt a wave of sadness from her as she disconnected the link.

I sighed and connected it again.

_I'm sorry._

_You love your mother._

I was silent for a little while.

_You need to go to my secret base._

_Your what?_

_Come on._

She jumped out of the cabin. I thought about protesting, but I knew it would be pointless. I followed her out. She gestured toward her back, and I climbed onto her. I grabbed her mane for balance.

_Ready?_

_Yea._

Starlight took off behind the cabins, and headed toward the beach. As she galloped beneath me I felt a surge of power, and she ran faster. Starlight felt so powerful when she ran like nothing could stop her. I felt all of her muscles moving and trying to go faster. I saw the forest trees rush by me.

_Do you want to try something?_

_What is it?_

_Focus our connection to my eyes._

I did that and my vision changed, it became sharper and the world seemed to be moving in slow motion.

_Do you always see like this?_

_That's nothing watch this._

My vision zoomed forward and I saw different heat signatures of animals and monsters. I drew the connection back.

_That was amazing._

_I got that ability after you made the second connection._

_Really?_

_Guardians can get new powers over time. We are here._

I looked around and saw nothing but trees and a huge bush the size of a Clydesdale.

_Where?_

She walked up to the bush and grabbed a branch in her teeth and moved it aside. A hole the size of a horse was there. She walked through the hole and I ducked pressing my head against her neck. When we came out there was a beautiful beach in front of us. It was in closed by bushes, like it was built just for Starlight. This place was completely untouched by man. I got the sense I shouldn't be here.

_What is this place?_

_My secret base. We are the only ones that know about it. This… This is where my mother dropped me off._

I looked at her surprised. Starlight didn't normally talk about her family. Most of the time she was arguing with Andrew or teasing me. This sudden revelation caught me off guard.

_What was she like?_

_ She had a warm glow, but that's all I really remember._

Starlight laid down on the sand, and I slid off her back. I watched the ocean and a strange thing happened I felt calm. I rested my head against Starlight stomach and feel asleep.

That night, I had my worst dream yet.

I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.

About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.

Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.

I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.

Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!

The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.

I woke up, sure I was falling.

I was still at the beach with Starlight. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that. I looked at Starlight she was frightened by the thunderstorm. She stood up and I climbed on her back. We left the secret base and went back to the cabin. We snuck into the cabin without any one seeing that we had ever left.

I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.

"Come in?"

Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."

"Why?"

"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."

I felt a tug on my mind.

_Great what does Daila want?_

_I don't know._

_Percy about your dream..._

_You saw that._

_Of course we share a mind._

_What about it?_

_I think we are about to have our answer._

She disconnected the link.

Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.

For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.

"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"

He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."

I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.

But this storm ... this one was huge.

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.

Grover, Starlight, and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Daila was looking at Starlight threw narrowed eyes. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."

I waited.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

Starlight snorted nervously.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D - " Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus and Daila rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.

He snapped his fingers.

The air seemed to fold and bend around him and his guardian. They became a hologram, then a wind, then they were gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."

We did. Starlight got behind me and rested her nose on my shoulder opening a link between us.

Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made me shudder.

Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.

"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, and Starlight had not come, I'd be dead."

"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."

"Done ... with what?"

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.

"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.

Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth.

_You and I both._

_Shut up._

"The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

I laughed nervously. "A what?"

_A stupid magic stick._

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?"

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?"

"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you."

My mouth fell open. Starlight tossed her head and neighed.

_What?!_

"At least" - Chiron held up a hand - "that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best', 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly - that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But I didn't - "

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" Starlight nickered in agreement.

Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.

"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.

How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.

"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"

"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along - the proverbial last straw."

"But I'm just a kid!"

"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon - my dad - he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?" I guessed.

"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."

"Bad," I repeated.

"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."

It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.

I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.

"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said.

_No, No._

I looked at Starlight.

_We have to find the stupid magic stick._

"And return it to Zeus."

"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"

_Stupid magic stick._

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

I swallowed. "Good reason."

"You agree then?"

I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.

Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.

"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

Starlight wanted to come with me, but I made the point that she couldn't go up stairs.

Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor.

I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.

The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.

I held my breath and climbed.

The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things - severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.

Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.

I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.

The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.

I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"

The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.

My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.

Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.

Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"

The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.

I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.

My audience with the Oracle was over.

Starlight looked at me, and she immediately understood. She twitched her ears.

"Well?" Chiron asked me.

I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."

My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

I didn't want to tell him.

What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.

And the last line - I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail

How could I confess that?

"No," I said. "That's about it."

He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.

"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."

Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"

"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but - but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... ."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."

"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."

"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.

I was ready to take him on.

Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld ...

Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.

_Good listen to that part of your brain._

_You know its really hard to listen to a conversation with you butting in all the time._

_Point?_

Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.

The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades - and I imagine Poseidon does - they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying I'm being used."

"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."

My dad needs me.

Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.

I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"

"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.

"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

_How many times do I have to tell you that it's a stupid magic stick?_

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

I felt my mind tingle, it was the same connection with Starlight but bigger. Starlight was talking to Chiron and Grover too.

_Do we look like golden retrievers?_

"No Starlight." Chiron said.

_Exactly I don't go chase magic sticks._

"Starlight we don't call the master bolt a magic stick." Chiron sighed.

_Fine! Stupid magic stick!_

I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.

"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," I told him.

"I can't ask that of you."

"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."

He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."

I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.

"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?"

Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane - "

_Are you insane?_

"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.

"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.

"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."

"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"

The air shimmered behind Chiron.

Annabeth and Andrew became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."

"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"

Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"

The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.

"A trio," I said. "That'll work."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."

**Well that's it I hope you liked it. Please review the more reviews the faster I will update. Again sorry for the long wait and , I finished this chap at midnight last night so it might be a little choppy in places.**

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